Vartan Kelechian

BIOGRAPHY

"It is just happened that I captured the essence of Human daily life, joy & struggle"

Born on the 22nd of June 1979 in Beirut city, to an Armenian father and a Lebanese mother. My familial story is not different from those of my counterparts, but it is due to my father's visual aesthetic, and my mom's willingness to humor his amateur passion of photography that I grew to see, view and observe my surroundings, if not differently, then definitely more attentively.

Throughout the years, I've tried to translate the visuals streaming in through my cornea and reflect them through my father's "Canomatic" camera. Such moments were the spice my life relished on, specifically when I decided to purchase my first Canon EOS 300D in 2003. Unfortunately, Destiny didn't allow me much playtime with my gadgets, as I had to carry on social responsibilities, which required a complete deviation from my passion towards a more stable career path, or so it seemed…

“I believe Every one of us in the world has a gift to discover, smart are the ones who use it well".And thus began my journey

Why I went Mirrorless

6 months ago, after shooting for almost 10 years with Canon, I completely switched to Fujifilm.

I considered the switch for a long time. I first waited because mirrorless systems were not up to DSLR standards. Then about a year ago, all mirrorless manufacturers began releasing new camera models that could compete with any DSLR and, in some cases, even surpassed them.

My first mirrorless camera was the Fujifilm X100T as a second body along with my 5D, but after some time I started noticing that im getting almost the same results while carrying a vintage, and light camera..

Size does matter, as a DSLR shooter, when preparing for a long and demanding journey, I always faced the same dilemma – what equipment to bring or what should I carry in that heavy bag.. ? I do not have to compromise anymore as I can now put everything in a small camera bag and bring it with me... this is called freedom ... but Don’t get me wrong, the size and the weight were not the main reasons for my switch. I would never jeopardize quality for the sake of weight reduction but it was important consideration.

Electronic Viewfinder, For me, the EVF is one of the main advantages of mirrorless cameras. Finally, when I look through the viewfinder I can see what the camera’s sensor sees. It is a very new and refreshing experience with the EVF, when you can assess the depth of field of the scene before taking the picture. I often use manual focusing when shooting landscapes, which was pretty much an impossible task with the DSLR in bright conditions because of the display screen glare. Now, not only can I easily use the manual focus in any condition, I can also take advantage of Focus Peaking, an amazing feature that highlights areas that are in focus with the bright color. There is no more guess work.

Low light conditions, Having shot with the new Fujifilm X-T2 during the past few months, I’ve been extremely impressed with how well it performs at high ISO settings. Given that the X-PRO2 does quite well when shooting in low light, I was curious about how they would improve the noise reduction on the X-T2...

To save you time, my switch from Canon DSLR to the mirrorless Fujifilm was less stressful and less painful than I expected. I believe that one of the main factors that made it possible was my purchase X100t.. My journey is still very long in the mirrorless world, I will keep writing articles about fujifilm X cameras and my field experience with them...